Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated January 11, 1956: Long-range missile

A new spectre is haunting UN disarmament experts: it is the likelihood that the Great Powers will soon develop an inter-continental missile. What worries the experts is the fact that such a missile with an atomic warhead launched from platforms normally concealed underground would make any disarmament agreement, based on inspection, impossible. Any country can thus make a mockery of President Eisenhower's open sky proposal. Fears about such missiles became apparent soon after the Soviet Premier, Marshal Bulganin, announced last week that the Soviet Union was developing an inter-continental missile. The US, incidentally, is also engaged in an effort to develop this weapon called the IBM. What is worrying the disarmament experts most is the fact that whereas with atomic and hydrogen bombs there is always the possibility of locating air forces from the air, there is just no way of ensuring where the IBMs are located and how they will be fired. The IBMs can be operationally deployed - that is, successfully hidden until a push-button raises an underground launching gear and the IBMs are fired at a distant target with complete accuracy.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Cartoonscape
The Hindu Crossword 8497
Solution to Puzzle 8496
Festival of sacrifice
dated January 11, 1956: Long-range missile
dated January 11, 1956: New AIR transmitter
dated January 11, 1956: Honour for Mankad, Roy
Weather

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu